Mozambique aims to attract $4 billion in foreign direct investment this year, double last year's figure, the head of the government's Investment Promotion Centre (CPI) said on Thursday.
CPI General Director Lourenco Sambo told Reuters in an interview that his agency would market the country's agriculture, mining, energy and infrastructure sectors to foreign investors from India, China and Europe.
“Our major target is to have more than $4 billion of foreign direct investments in 2011, up from $2 billion last year when the global financial crisis swept across the world resulting in the downward trend of investments”, Sambo said.
Sambo said a government delegation led by Prime Minister Aires Aly is expected to visit India next month to seek investors.
“We will not deliver a political speech there but to tell the Indian firms to come and invest in our mining and agriculture sector where we have potential and also improve our trade corridors such as ports and railways”, he said.
Sambo said priority will be given to agriculture, where the government hopes to improve productivity to cut its dependency on imports and help the country bring down food prices.
“We will invite Indians and the Chinese investors to put more money in agriculture and the transport infrastructures”, he said.
Mozambique's economy grew by 6.2 percent in 2010, according to the government, and the International Monetary Fund expects it to expand 7.5 percent this year. - Reuters
